> ## Knowledge Base Index
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> Use this file to discover available pages before exploring further.
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# Show different things to different clients

What a client sees in their client portal comes from four settings: the theme, the sidebar, the dashboard and the onboarding cards. Each of them can have a separate version for particular clients or client teams, and each is set up on its own. Themes are on **Settings › Brand › Client themes**; the other three are under **Settings › Portal**.

## Give a client or a team their own version

1. Open the list you need: **Settings › Brand › Client themes**, **Settings › Portal › Sidebar content**, **Settings › Portal › Dashboards** or **Settings › Portal › Onboardings**.
2. For a sidebar or a dashboard, start by duplicating the default from the menu on its row, so you only have to change what is different. A theme can start empty, so you can skip this step for themes.
3. In the new version, choose who gets it: **Visible to** on a sidebar or a dashboard, or **Applies to** on a theme.
4. If the version is for a company, choose the client team rather than individual people, so that people added to the team later get it too. See [Put clients into a team](https://help.getzendo.io/en/article/put-clients-into-a-team-74h5nv/).
5. Make your changes. Sidebars and client themes have a **Live preview** to check them in.
6. Publish. A version that is still in **Draft** is not shown to anyone.
7. Open the client's profile and select **View as client** to see the theme, sidebar, dashboard and onboarding cards that now apply to them. See [View the portal as a client](https://help.getzendo.io/en/article/view-the-portal-as-a-client-8xh4sc/).

![Duplicate in a sidebar's row menu (2). The Applies to column shows who gets each version.](https://getzendo.io/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/kb-p4-sidebar-list.webp =800x272)

## The default version

Everybody gets the default unless you give them something else. For the look, the default is **Settings › Brand › Appearance**. For the sidebar and the dashboard, it is the one marked **Default** in the list.

The default sidebar and the default dashboard are always visible to everyone, and that cannot be changed. That is why a version for particular clients starts as a copy of the default, limited to those clients, rather than as an edit of the default itself.

A theme contains only the sections where you turn on **Override**. So a theme can, for example, change nothing but the accent colour and keep everything else from **Appearance**, including changes you make there later. See [Create a client theme](https://help.getzendo.io/en/article/create-a-client-theme-u3u3fz/).

## Showing cards and sidebar items after a purchase

An onboarding card can be limited in two ways, which work together: to the clients and teams you choose, and to clients who bought a particular service or submitted a particular request type. That is how a card can welcome a client after a purchase. See [Create an onboarding card](https://help.getzendo.io/en/article/create-an-onboarding-card-j508us/).

A sidebar, and a single item in it, can only be limited to particular clients and teams, not to a purchase. To limit one item, expand it and use **Limit visibility of this item.** See [Change what is in the client sidebar](https://help.getzendo.io/en/article/change-what-is-in-the-client-sidebar-19vnb7p/).

## Your team: own sidebars and dashboards, but no theme

Sidebars and dashboards created for **Internal users** work the same way, except that they are limited by role rather than by client. See [Change your team's sidebar](https://help.getzendo.io/en/article/change-your-teams-sidebar-1n7llbp/). The look is the exception: your team always sees **Settings › Brand › Appearance**, and there is no theme per role.

## Related

- [Create a client theme](https://help.getzendo.io/en/article/create-a-client-theme-u3u3fz/)
- [Change what is in the client sidebar](https://help.getzendo.io/en/article/change-what-is-in-the-client-sidebar-19vnb7p/)
- [Build a dashboard](https://help.getzendo.io/en/article/build-a-dashboard-1dy17xy/)
- [Create an onboarding card](https://help.getzendo.io/en/article/create-an-onboarding-card-j508us/)
- [A client sees the wrong sidebar, dashboard or theme](https://help.getzendo.io/en/article/a-client-sees-the-wrong-sidebar-dashboard-or-theme-sbdlmy/)